Board Members

JOHN REETZ

President

John is co-owner of Media Solutions Partners, an Atlanta-based consulting firm focused on helping media companies’ transition to a successful and strong digital future. Recent clients include GateHouse Media, Digital First Media, TapClicks, WebMD, The New York Times Co., ClickFuel, Crowdynews, Digital Sherpa, Network Communications Inc., Community Newspapers Inc. and other media-focused companies.

John’s career includes stints in community journalism, reporting and editing, and newsroom management for Cox Newspapers, where he led a group that supports the digital efforts at 40-plus websites for Cox. Prior to working at Cox, John was the Assistant Managing Editor of News Operations at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he was responsible for copy desks, design, newsroom technology, newsroom operations. He was chairman of the AJC’s Olympics Operations Committee, coordinating a Cox-wide effort involving several thousand employees focused on Olympics publication efforts. He also was Managing Editor of the Gwinnett Daily News, a New York Times-owned paper. John also worked as a reporter and then city editor at the Savannah Morning News, ran a tri-weekly in the mountains of Western North Carolina, ran a weekly in Lyndon Johnson’s hometown of Johnson City and owned a weekly newspaper in East Texas.

John is a 1972 journalism graduate of the College of Communication at the University of Texas. While attending the University of Texas, John was a reporter, copy editor, assistant managing editor and managing editor at The Daily Texan. He is in routine and regular contact with Texan colleagues from that era, and on his office desk uses as a paperweight the hot-metal type box which daily proclaimed The Texan’s independent status on the editorial page all through 1971.

TOM KLEINWORTH

Vice President

Tom is vice president for government relations at Baylor College of Medicine. Since 1986, he has served as the medical school’s liaison with the Texas Legislature and numerous State agencies, and also is responsible for the College’s efforts at the Federal and county level.

Tom is a 1973 journalism graduate of The University of Texas College of Communication. While attending UT, he was a copy editor, general assignments reporter, volunteer wire editor and assistant managing editor at The Daily Texan, and served as Texan managing editor in the spring 1973 semester. In his first few weeks as managing editor, the Board of Regents shut down the University for a week for lack of heating fuel; President Lyndon Johnson died; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Roe v. Wade; several former aides of President Nixon were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident; and the Vietnam Peace Accords were signed in Paris. After that, things started picking up.

After graduation from UT, Tom worked as a general assignments reporter and assistant tri-state editor for The Commercial Appeal, the Scripps-Howard morning newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. He later worked for five years as a legislative aide to Texas State Senator Chet Brooks, and for three years as director of communications at the Texas Pharmacy Association.

ALICIA DIETRICH

Treasurer

Alicia worked as a features writer, copy editor, wire editor and eventually copy desk chief and associate managing editor at The Daily Texan between 2002 and 2004. She graduated in 2004 with a degree in print journalism and is currently the public affairs director at the College of Fine Arts at UT Austin.

She worked as a copy editor and designer in midsize newspapers for two years after college before transitioning to public affairs in 2006 at UT’s Harry Ransom Center, where she worked for 9 years before moving over to the College of Fine Arts in 2015. She also serves as vice-president of the Austin-Area Terry Alumni Association and is a 2015 graduate of Leadership Austin’s Emerge program.

JENNIFER MOREHEAD

Secretary

Jennifer is a copy editor at the Washington Post, primarily working on national and foreign news and the Post’s weekly op-ed section, Outlook. After graduating from the University of Texas in 2000, Jennifer received a Hearst Newspaper Fellowship, spending six months each at the Beaumont Enterprise, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Albany Times Union. She then went to the Houston Chronicle, working as the chief slot for the Sunday news sections. After more than two years, Jennifer was recruited by The New York Times, where she worked on the national copy desk. Then in 2006 she moved to the Post, where she has edited the Pulitzer Prize-winning Walter Reed medical center series, along with several Pulitzer finalists and other special projects.

Jennifer has a BA from the Plan II Honors Program. At The Daily Texan, she worked on the copy desk, eventually becoming assistant managing editor. She lives in Bryan, Texas, with her husband, Ken Smith, a web designer and former Washington Post journalist.

CLIFF AVERY

Board Member

Cliff wrote for The Daily Texan before he registered for a course at the University of Texas. He worked at the Texan throughout his college career and served as managing editor in the fall of 1972. He was elected to the Texas Student Publications board (now Texas Student Media) in 1973 and graduated with a degree in journalism that same year.

After graduation and several flirtations with law school, he worked for newspapers — daily and weekly — and as a television news director. He worked on early electronic publishing ventures with a subsidiary of Time, Inc. in New York, where he rose to assistant managing editor for technology, and with a consortium in Chicago, where he was vice president and editor. For the past 22 years, Cliff has owned a small business in the Austin area that provides services to statewide associations and local governments.

STANLEY FARRAR

Board Member

After graduation with a philosophy degree from UT Austin, Stanley worked as a photographer and photo director for Texas Student Publications. He then went to the Associated Press Washington D.C. bureau as a picture editor and came back to Austin as Director of Photography and Graphics at the American Statesman.

After seven years at the Statesman he began a 25-year stint with The Seattle Times. He began as Assistant Managing Editor for photography, design and graphics and took on representing the newsroom on company-wide technology changes.

He was a member of a small team which began the first online operations at the Times. Stanley served for 10 years as managing editor and executive producer for seattletimes.com and for his last three years in Seattle was project manager for the implementation of a new newsroom publishing system.

Since retiring and moving back to Austin he has served on the board of the Austin Center for Photography and done volunteer work for the Hill Country Land Trust.E-mail:Click to Contact

BRANDI GRISSOM

Board Member

Brandi Grissom is The Dallas Morning News Austin Bureau Chief. Before joining theMorning News, she was a deputy projects editor at The Los Angeles Times, where she
coordinated major investigative and enterprise reporting and worked with the
newspaper’s award­ winning environmental reporting team. But Grissom spent most
of her career covering the Texas Capitol. She was The Texas Tribune’s managing
editor and joined the staff of the nonprofit online publication when it launched in
2009, reporting on immigration, border security and criminal justice. Grissom also
covered the statehouse for four years for the El Paso Times, where she acted as a
one­ woman Capitol bureau. She is a burnt­ orange bleeding Longhorn and was
managing editor of University of Texas at Austin’s Daily Texan.

J.J. HERMES

Board Member

JJ served as editor of The Daily Texan from 2006-07. After graduating with degrees in physics and astronomy, Hermes worked for a year in Washington, D.C. as a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He returned to UT-Austin in 2008 and completed his PhD in astronomy in 2013, where he had the pleasure to spend more than 220 nights in west Texas at the McDonald Observatory. He is currently a research fellow in astronomy at the University of Warwick in central England.

CYNDI TAYLOR KRIER

Board Member

Cyndi leads Krier Consulting Group Inc., a San Antonio-based consulting firm. After more than 30 years in federal, state and local governments, along with private sector experience in business, law and financial services, her work now focuses on helping both public and private sector entities work better together by understanding each other’s perspectives. Services include communications, strategic planning, government relations, public affairs, crisis management and dispute resolution. Clients have included businesses and individuals involved in telecommunications, transportation, technology, financial services, energy, water, medicine, government and economic development. Cyndi received her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Texas College of Communication in 1971 and is a 1975 graduate of the UT School of Law. While attending the University of Texas, she was a reporter, news editor and editorial page editor at The Daily Texan. Among assignments while working at the Texan, she reported on meetings of the Texas Legislature, local governments and the UT System Board of Regents. In the years since, she served two terms as a member of the Texas Senate, served as Bexar County Judge from 1992 – 2001, and served as a UT regent from 2001-2007, including terms as Vice Chairman of the board and as Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. She is a past president of the Texas Exes alumni organization. Recognizing the impact the University of Texas, the College of Communications and The Daily Texan had on her career and life, Krier has remained active with all three – serving on committees, speaking at events, and mentoring students.

PAMELA MAYO CLARK

Board Member

Pamela is a project manager and financial development expert for non-profit organizations. She has extensive experience working for both non-profits and political campaigns. Pamela has held a variety of executive staff positions at Austin non-profits. She was the director of education and special projects for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and was the director of development for the International Hospitality Council of Austin. Pamela was also the director of community services and outreach department for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

Pamela also has worked on several political campaigns in Texas, including time spent as the director of finance for the Gonzalo Barrientos for Texas State Senate campaign in 2004. She is an alumni of Leadership Austin and a 1973 journalism graduate of the University of Texas.

DAVE PLAYER

Board Member

Dave worked as an associate editor at The Daily Texan from 2008-2011. After graduating with degrees in Plan II Honors and history he attended the University of Texas School of Law. In 2012 he was elected to a two-year term on the Texas Student Media Board, where he served as President for the 2013-2014 academic year, and was on the search committee for the new TSM Director. While in law school Dave interned at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas House of Representatives, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. As a student he was inducted into the Friar Society in 2011, was published in the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, & Energy Law, and was named a “Pro Bono Superstar” as one of the top three graduates with the most pro bono hours. Dave currently works as a corporate and securities associate in Dallas for Jackson Walker L.L.P., where he advises clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance issues, debt and equity financing, regulatory compliance, and general business matters.

LILLY ROCKWELL

Board Member

Lilly recently joined the Austin American-Statesman as city hall reporter. Prior to that, she was an associate editor for Florida Trend magazine. She helps conceive and write monthly feature and investigative stories, assists in copy-editing the magazine and writes the “Around the State” section on Northeast Florida. The Society of Professional Journalists recently recognized Lilly with an investigative reporting award for her article on Florida’s failure to aggressively investigate Medicaid fraud.

Lilly has also covered Florida politics and education policy as a reporter for the online publication News Service of Florida. Before moving to Florida in 2009, Lilly was a business reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, where she covered Fortune 500 company Whole Foods Market Inc. and the biotechnology, advertising and gaming industries.

A 2005 graduate of the University of Texas, Lilly has bachelor’s degrees in political science and journalism. At The Daily Texan,, she was a Senior Reporter and News Editor in 2003-04 before taking on internships at The Wichita Eagle, Cox Newspapers, and The Florida Times-Union. She enjoys spending time with her Little Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters, long-distance running and singing in the Tallahassee Community Chorus. Lilly lives in Tallahassee with her husband.

GRIFF SINGER

Board Member

Griff retired from the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism in 2003, but is still active in the department on a part-time basis. He has served as director of the Dow Jones News Fund’s Editing Excellence Center at UT since its inception in 1998. This highly competitive internship program is designed to encourage top students from the nation’s universities to commit to becoming copy editors on newspapers, wire services and online news organizations. After returning to UT to teach journalism in 1967, Griff served on the Texas Student Publications (now Texas Student Media) board several times, beginning after the failed charter renewal of the 1970s.

Griff’s UT career was primarily centered in the classroom, working with upper division journalism students, helping them master professional skills in writing, editing and design. He also served as associate chairman and head of newspaper studies for many years and has consulted with Freedom Communications, Inc., a California-based corporation with 26 daily newspapers.

Prior to teaching, Griff served in reporter and editor positions at The Arlington Citizen-Journal (1956-59), The Dallas Morning News (1959-67) and The San Antonio Light (1979-81). He also worked as a news department consultant and part-time assistant metro editor at the Houston Chronicle from 1988-2003. Among his career highlights was helping direct coverage of the assassination of President John Kennedy and the ensuing investigation and the trial of Jack Ruby for the slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy’s assassin. He was also part of a team of Western journalists in 1994 that went into the former Soviet state of Krygyzstan to introduce Russian-trained journalists to a free press.

Singer earned his Bachelor of Journalism and his Master’s of Arts in communication from the University of Texas at Austin. He also worked on The Daily Texan as a reporter and assigning editor from 1953-55 and worked full-time in the Texan composing room from 1953-56.

JAMIE STOCKWELL

Board Member

Jamie Stockwell, 39, is managing editor of the San Antonio Express­-News. Her
career began at the Daily Texan, and upon graduation from the School of Journalism
in 1999, Jamie joined the staff of The Washington Post,, where for eight years she
wrote mostly about criminal justice. She was among the team that chronicled the
2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and was a lead reporter for the 2002 Beltway
Sniper case that captivated the nation. She regularly appeared on cable shows and
radio programs to discuss her stories. Jamie returned to Texas in 2007 to become
one of two editors in charge of the crime team at the San Antonio Express-­News. She was promoted to deputy metro editor a year later, and in 2009, she was named
metro editor, a role that allowed her to shape the direction of local news coverage.
Today, as managing editor, Jamie oversees the daily operations of the newspaper,
from story conception to execution across platforms, as well as the newsroom
budget, hiring, and personnel. Jamie is also a graduate of the Media Executive
Leadership Program at Northwestern University and the Hearst Corporation’s Hearst
Management Institute. She is from the Rio Grande Valley.

LAURA HALLAS

Board Member

Laura Hallas is a Plan II, Economics, and Health and Society sophomore from Allen, Texas. She has been involved in journalism and opinion writing since her high school days, and carried that passion with her to UT where she has spent three semesters as a senior columnist and copy editor. Outside of the Texan basement, Hallas has experience as a magazine designer, government intern and public health researcher. During her term, Hallas hopes to make the Texan more accessible to students by improving inclusivity within the opinion department and promoting relevant perspectives on campus issues. She credits the opinion department for connecting her to campus, strengthening her career aspirations and developing her fondness for vintage couches.

MICHELLE ZHANG

Board Member

Michelle Zhang is a third-year student at The University of Texas at Austin studying business and Plan II Honors. In fall 2017, she will be the managing editor of The Daily Texan after previously having worked in positions as associate copy desk chief and associate managing editor. She is also the managing director of Project Consent, a global nonprofit combating sexual assault and rape culture. She plans to pursue a career in YA publishing, filmmaking, or any format where stories can be told.